Warrior PvE guide
=Things Warriors want Non-Warriors to know= We try our best to pull mobs off you guys when they break out of our aggro, or when the inevitable add wanders into a battle. The worst thing you can do if you want help is to run away from the warrior who wants to help you. Typically the warrior will have a couple of mobs he/she's dealing with, and turning to run after a priest/mage who's wet him/her self at taking a hit from a mob only makes things worse. We run, our mobs start hitting us from behind, we get stunned which slows us down. Our ally gets further away, starts screaming for help, we keep trying but have trouble running while being beaten on from behind, and of course lose our dodge, parry, and block abilities because the mobs are behind us. We aren't being healed because our healers is panicing. Healer dies, then we die too, and we all have a long walk back in black-and-white land while the healer complains that we aren't doing our job, etc. In addition, unless the mob is close to death, standing and fighting back by using your most damaging and threatening spells or abilities on it will build up threat that the warrior will have to work to reduce (likely increasing the number of hits the mob will get on the caster instead of the warrior). Save those for when the warrior has the mob in hand and controlled through his aggro abilities. Alternate solution, if you are being attacked, keep your face to the mob, and back to the warrior, we can easily back up a few steps and do a few things to pull the mob off, then resume battle as usual. Typically running when you are "next to dead" just means you will hasten the transition to fully dead. Where if you stand and fight ... maybe you'll give the warrior a chance to pull the mob and save you. Let the warrior do the initial pulling unless you are using a hunter to create the Perfect Zone of Ultimate Safety. It's easier to hold the aggro when you start with it, than trying to pull it off someone. Sure mages have some amazing ranged spells, as do many others, while the warrior's ranged ability is mediocre at best. But if a mage opens up on a mob by doing a couple hundred damage, its hard for a warrior to overcome the hatred that creates in the mob. In the event it appears that the best tactic would be to have someone else pull (A long range pull) use a low damage low hate spell, just think of the spells you used when you were level 2 or 3. Also the initial pull often pulls other mobs as well. If the warrior pulls, those adds will pull to him as well. Additionally, stunning a mob unexpectedly during a pull and unloading DPS onto it can surprise a warrior. Warriors cannot hold aggro if they can't hit the mob, and they can't hit the mob if it is stunned before the pull arrives at us. The warrior may also be trying to position a mob away from potential adds - stunning or rooting an enemy immediately makes this more difficult or impossible, and could cause a wipe if the group gets feared or accidentally too close to another group of mobs. A special note to rogues, the "Expose Armor" ability you have seriously hampers the warrior's ability to take and hold aggro. One of our "bread and butter" aggro moves is "Sunder Armor", but while "Expose Armor" is up we can't cast this because "a more powerful spell is already applied". So PLEASE, for both our sakes, don't use "Expose Armor" when you have a warrior tanking for you. We cannot both hold aggro and heal ourselves, because we don't have any healing abilities that can't be interrupted (first aid can and frequently is). If we are holding aggro, healers, your first priority is to keep us healthy. A dead warrior is an angry player, because the dead warrior not only can't assist the party any further, but won't get any XP from the encounter, especially frustrating if it's a boss encounter. =Things Non-Warriors want Warriors to know= * The first thing that every warrior in an instance group needs to accept is this. You are not there to do damage. Any smart group would rather you do zero damage but keep aggro on you at all times than to try to keep your dps up and let the mage or healer get beat on. It is possible (even easy) to hold the attention of 2-4 mobs at once, but not while you are trying to do damage to the enemy. * Always have Sunder Armor on your action bar. I don't care if you're a DPS warrior, you have more armor in your pinky than most casters have total with Tier 3 epics. Healers will have a much easier time healing if only you are taking damage. * If you're tanking, be in defensive stance for most of the battle, unless you are using Tactical Mastery to switch stances to use special abilities, (Whirlwind and Thunder Clap come to mind). Also, if you have tactical mastery, in some pulls, charging the mob then switching right to defensive can be a very effective way to generate your initial rage, which is the hardest part of the battle. * There are several skills that a warrior needs to have in an instance group to survive. The first of these is aggro generation. There are three skills that do this best, shield bash, revenge(much more efficent with talents), and sunder armor. These three skills are what you use to keep aggro on yourself. When this fails, Taunt is your best friend, and will buy you a few seconds to regain aggro (with Shield Bash or Sunder Armor). Note: Taunt generates no aggro itself, only forces the mob to attack you for a short period of time. * Another skill that is rather simple yet many warriors do not use, is "tap" aggroing. When there is a pull of multiple mobs, they will have no one on their aggro list, and run to attack the nearest party member. An easy way to stop this is to use Demoralizing Shout to gain a very small ammount of aggro on all the mobs around you instantly. While the mobs will still run for your healer when they start healing you, it gives you time to use skills like Whirlwind, Sunder Armor, Shield Bash, and Revenge to gain a stronger hold on aggro. A good warrior can pull 4 mobs and never let one leave him. A poor warrior focuses on 1 and lets his group deal with the rest. * When you are the only Warrior in the group, you are the main-tank, unless there is a big, obvious, reason why this would be a bad idea. Please do not ask other classes to tank for you because, "I want to use my two-hander". You cannot give another class the title of "tank" and expect them to be able to hold aggro. * Remember that it is your job to protect the rest of your group. However, when bad things happen (and they always do) it is important to know which party members need saving first: # Main Healer - Always, without fail, protect your healer above all else. # Cloth Wearers - They die fast and need attention before their mana is depleted. # Druids/Shaman/Rouges/Hunters - Have Leather or better, and either heals or ways to lessen their own aggro. Can all off-tank in bad situations when the healer needs saving now, but don't count on them to do your job for you. If the druid/shamen is main healer, get the mob off them first. # Paladins - Unless they are your main healer, paladins are tanks themselves, and can off tank an elite mob if needed. If they are main healer, help them first. * Tanking is an art form, and can be difficult to master. However, remember that it doesn't matter what your talent build is, in an instance group, you are the tank unless told otherwise. And holding aggro through dps is not an option. * While it can be argued that you are perfectly capable of pulling, you are not going to be the best puller in EVERY situation. A great resource on knowing when you are the puller is The Perfect Zone of Ultimate Safety. Basically, a hunter or even a rogue can attempt a pull while the rest of the party is standing out of aggro range, then if it works they will be able to hand aggro to the warrior. If the pull goes bad, they can abort it or just die and be ressurrected later. This can be a slow tactic and may even be impossible to pull off at the time (cramped space for example). * Use your shield! You will tank better by being able to take more damage. I dont care what DPS your sword or your dual-weilding prowess has, if you are the primary tank, use a shield. As long as you can hold aggro and take all the damage, you'll be fine. With a shield, in some cases you can get close to 3000 extra armor a few more stats, a shield spike or enchantment, and + defense to add on to what you already have, it's silly to not make use of something like that. * If you are tanking a mob near a shackle, sap, polymorph or otherwise incapacitated mob please consider pulling the active mobs away before using any aoe abilities like thunder clap. * Do not become overly aggresive. Don't go rushing into battle whenever you see a mob. Let casters recover mana and allow for rebuffs. You can't last long if healers and damage dealers are tapped out and can't recover while in combat. Category:Warriors